Top 10 ALBUMS of 2021 as Rated by Contributors

Across every known genre in the musicverse, 2021 saw incredible releases from artists new and old proving that pressure really does create diamonds. The pandemic certainly put a strain on every performer’s bottom line but the real bottom line behind every dollar is the artistic inspiration that drives people’s ears to your art. We saw game changing albums in 2021, from Turnstile’s Glow On which may just be the first “dreamcore” album, to Dry Cleaning’s New Long Leg which reinvigorated British post punk with cool feminine ennui. Plenty of Jankysmooth favorites came out with new albums like Viagra Boys’ Welfare Jazz, Shannon and the Clams’ Year of the Spider, Surfbort’s Keep on Truckin’, Angel Du$t’s Yak, and so many more. We discovered new favorites along the way too, like Pixel Grip’s Arena, Magdalena Bay’s Mercurial World, Squid’s Bright Green Field, and so many more. Icons were created in 2021, like Japanese Breakfast after their album Jubilee, Idles after Crawler, and King Woman after Celestial Blues. The list goes on and on, so to make things more concise, our contributors rated their top ten favorite albums of the year. Check it out.

Publisher, Danny Baraz

1. Turnstile – Glow On
2. Black Midi – Cavalcade
3. Melvins – Working with God
4. Viagra boys – Welfare Jazz
5. Pixel Grip – Arena
6. Squid – Bright Green Field
7. Tomahawk – Tonic Immobility
8. Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg
9. Crumb – Ice Melt
10. Shannon and the Clams – Year of the Spider

Editor, Rob Shepyer

1. Taake – Avvik
2. Rudimentary Peni – Great War
3. Carcass – Torn Arteries
4. Skepticism – Companion
5. Danny Elfman – Big Mess
6. Portrayal of Guilt – CHRISTFUCKER
7. Lingua Ignota – SINNER GET READY
8. Ethel Cain – Inbred
9. Anika – Change
10. Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg

Photographer, Taylor Wong

1. Turnstile – Glow On
2. Drug Church – Tawny
3. Angel Du$t – YAK: A Collection of Truck Songs
4. The Bronx – Bronx VI
5. Every Time I Die – Radical
6. Idles – Crawler
7. Together Pangea – DYE
8. Playboy Manbaby – Toxic Positivity
9. Modest Mouse – The Golden Casket
10. Single Mothers – Pig

Photographer, Manuel Arredondo

1. Every Time I Die – Radical
2. Turnstile – Glow On
3. Nothing, Nowhere – Trauma Factory
4. Teenage Wrist – Earth is a Black Hole
5. The Armed – Ultra Pop
6. Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
7. Joe Vann – Found in the Smoke
8. Silk Sonic – An Evening With Silk Sonic
9. Fuckin Whatever – self titled
10. Royal Blood – Typhoons

Author, Dave Unbuckled

1. Turnstile – Glow On
2. Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
3. Slaughterhouse – Fun Factory
4. Angel Du$t – Yak: A Collection of Truck Songs
5. Olivia Rodrigo – Sour
6. Czar Face/MF Doom – Super What?
7. Mdou Moctar – Afrique Victime
8. Julian Baker – Little Oblivion’s
9. Spirit of the Beehive – Entertainment Death
10. Tyler the Creator – Call Me If You Get Lost

Photographer, Dillon Vaughn

1. Magdalena Bay – Mercurial World
2. Four Stroke Baron – Classics
3. Lantlos – Wildhund
4. Violet Cold – Empire of Love
5. Genghis Tron – Dream Weapon
6. The Warhorse – Gentle Risks
7. Good Morning – Barnyard
8. Porches – All Day Gentle Hold!
9. Carcass – Torn Arteries
10. Elder and Kadaver as Eldovar – A Story of Light and Darkness

Photographer, Albert Licano

1. Bobby Ramone – Rocket to Kingston
2. Carcass – Torn Arteries
3. Slant – 1집
4. EYEHATEGOD – A History of Nomadic Behavior
5. Neighborhood Brats – Confines of Life
6. Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg
7. Naked Raygun – Over the Overlords
8. Spitboy – Body of Work 1990-1995 All the Songs
9. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – B-Sides and Rarities
10. Section H8 – Welcome to the Nightmare

Author, Aria Silva-Espinosa

1. Slowthai – TYRON
2. Chynna – Drug Opera
3. JPEGMAFIA – LP!
4. Modest Mouse – The Golden Casket
5. N8NOFACE – Bound to Let You Down
6. HighSchool – Forever at Last
7. Petey – Other Stuff
8. Turnstile – Glow On
9. Ivy Lab – Press Play
10. Lil Nas X – Montero

Photographer, Rebecca DiGiglio

1. Chelsea Wolfe & Converge – Blood Moon 1
2. Idles – Crawler
3. King Woman – Celestial Blues
4. Liars – The Apple Drop
5. Lingua Ignota – SINNER GET READY
6. Run For Your Fucking Life – self titled
7. Satanic Planet  – self titled
8. Silent – Modern Hate
9. Sonido De Le Frontera – Sonidero Guerillero
10. Xiu Xiu – OH NO

Photographer, Veronika Reinert

1. Zao – The Crimson Corridor
2. Azure Ray – Remedy
3. Knocked Loose – A Tear In The Fabric of Life
4. Julien Baker – Little Oblivions
5. Dying Wish – Fragments Of A Bitter Memory
6. Snail Mail – Valentine
7. Earth Crisis, Snapcase, Strife – The Return of California Takeover
8. Lucy Dacus – Home Video
9. Manchester Orchestra – The Million Masks of God
10. Taylor Swift – Red

Photographer, Pedro Carrera

1. Every Time I Die – Radical
2. Idles – Crawler
3. Nas – King’s Disease II
4. Electroforez – 505
5. Vader – De Profundis
6. Silk Sonic – An Evening With Silk Sonic
7. Jedi Mind Tricks – The Funeral and the Raven
8. The Black Keys – Delta Kream
9. J Cole – The Off Season
10. DMX – Exodus

Photographer, Anthony Mehlhaff

1. Soul Glo – DisNigga. Vol 2 and Songs to Yeet at the Sun
2. Orphan Goggles – Perfect Specimen
3. Gulch/Sunami – split
4. Hong Kong Fuck You – Third World Fighting Music
5. Taqbir – self titled
6. Surfbort – Keep on Truckin’
7. Amyl and the Sniffers – Comfort to Me
8. Cannibal Corpse – Violence Unimagined
9. Big Dumb Face – Christmas in the Cave of Dagoth

Author, Jonathan Reyes

1. Lingua Ignota – SINNER GET READY
2. Pictureplane – Dopamine
3. Ovlov – Bud
4. Remi Wolf- Juno
5. Meagan Thee Stallion – Something For The Hotties
6. Turnstile – Glow On
7. John Mayer – Sob Rock
8. Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
9. Men I Trust – The Untourable Album
10. Brockhampton – Roadrunner New Light New Machine

Photographer, Grace Dunn

1. Dove Armitage – Pegasus
2. Crumb – Ice Melt
3. Japanese Breakfast – Jubilee
4. Andy Shuaf – Wilds
5. Jurassic Witch – Black Masses and Ashes
6. Arooj Aftab – Vulture Prince
7. Pachyman – The Return of Pachyman
8. Sharon Van Etten – Epic Ten
9. Hooveriii – Water for the Frogs
10. Riki – Gold